My Place to Write

Every night I go to my little cubby hole, I call my office. There I will attempt to write, surf the internet looking for ideas, check emails, social media, and possible play a computer game of some sort. The dogs keep me company. The little dog, Keelaa, makes sure I take my breaks from writing. I think she has an egg timer hiding somewhere that only she knows about it. We have to stop to play a game of tug. Then there is the receiving of a chew toy of some type. She prefers rawhide chews.

[media-credit id=1 align=”aligncenter” width=”300″][/media-credit]In my office, I use a desktop. I do have a laptop, but I stopped using that so much ever since Keelaa came along a year ago. I used to use it in the living room, but I’m afraid the pup will use it for a launch or landing pad as she catapults herself across the couch. Now, I save the laptop for travel, especially when I go to a writing function and have to stay overnight.

[media-credit id=1 align=”aligncenter” width=”300″][/media-credit]Sometimes I’m productive. I’ve learned how to put the dogs to sleep. That happens when I put Celtic music on to help me get into the zone for writing fantasy. They don’t sleep so well when I put Today’s Top Hits on, for writing Young Adult Contemporary. I always have to have some sort of background noise when I write. It can’t be perfectly quiet. Even when I was in school, I couldn’t do my homework or study without having either the radio or the tv on.

Most times, it’s night time when I go and work in my office, Monday through Friday. On the weekend, I tend to start writing by 7 am. The reason I don’t start writing at that point in the morning during the weekdays is because I have a regular 7-3 job. Yup, I work in a factory making things. Sometimes I will either weave fabric, sew fabric, or put parts together. I like my day job. I like the people I work with. I think I would be hard pressed ever to give it up, because of them.

I don’t just use a computer to write. Many times I will jot things down on scrap pieces of paper, even when I’m at work. If an idea comes to me, I have to capture it before it is lost in the abyss of the mind. That is where the pens and pencils come in. I make my own notebooks up with blank cardstock that I can print a cover design on. This I fill with lined paper and use brass fasteners to hold it all together.

My ideal space would have everything I need in a day, right there in my office. Unfortunately, I lack the room. A small refrigerator for cold drinks would be nice. Room for exercise equipment would be nice too. Then there needs to be storage space for all the manuscript files and don’t forget bookshelves for all those books I need to read.

Someday, I’ll be able to have an office like that. For now, I’m happy the way things are.

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About Linda Nelson

Full-time worker by day and a college student/writer by night. Linda is studying Business Management and Social Services while she works on her Bachelor Degree at Franklin Pierce University. Blogging when she can to keep the writing muse growing.
In 2010, Linda broke out into writing with her first Contemporary Young Adult novella, Friends of Choice which she later retitled and re-edited in 2013 to, What Karla Wants. Since then she has published two more Contemporary Young Adult novels, one of which is a Sweet Romance, and published two slipstream fantasy novels.
Linda is a member of Romance Writers of America since 2012. Watch for her coming new releases.